Paint applying means



April 1962 w. A. WHITFIELD ETAL, 3,030,652

PAINT APPLYING MEANS Filed July 29. 1959 Wirnws WWM Sttes This inventionrelates to a means for applying paint products to surfaces, and moreparticularly to paint applicators of the cylindrical roller type.

The problem of applying paint and like surface coatings is of longstanding. Three distinct methods exist, i.e., brushing it on, sprayingit on, and rolling it on. The brush method is the oldest one, but isslow and tedious. Also, it is diflicult to avoid paint droppings. Themethod of spraying the paint by compressed air is rapid, but due tofogging it cannot be used for inside wall painting and even out of doorsit is often not feasible due to the fog drifting beyond the area of useand onto other objects. Furthermore, spraying is only possible whenlarge mass areas are to be painted inasmuch as one cannot draw finelines with a spray gun. Also, such equipment is costly and requires theservices of a skilled technician. In recent years, many have turned tothe paint roller. In general, it consists of a handle, and a wool likecovered cylinder rotatably mounted to the handle. The paint to beapplied is placed on the absorbent wool padding, and the tool manuallyrolled over the wall surface. The actual rolling of the paint onto thewall is rapid and drippings are not normally encountered. The difficultyis the time consumed in constantly replenishing the wool cylinder with anew supply of paint. Some effort has been made to have the cylinderperforated and a supply of paint inside the cylinder. There are severalobjections to these fountain paint rollers. First and foremost, thepaint must be of a proper consistency in order to pass through theperforations and through the wool like cylinder covering. Even then,there is a tendency toward paint clogging and it is almost impossible toclean the unit after use. Furthermore, with the cylinder full of paint,the tool is entirely too heavy for ease of operation.

' Therefore, one of the principal objects of our invention is to providea means for supplying paint to a cylindrical paint roller during theactual rolling of the tool over the surface to be painted.

More specifically, the object of this invention is to provide a paintdistribution supply cylinder in contact with a cylindrical paint rollerand which is in communication at times with a paint supply source.

A further object of this invention is to provide a fountain paintapplicator of the cylindrical roller type that is light of weight.

A still further object of this invention is to provide a fountain paintroller device that uniformly distributes the proper amount of the paintproduct over and onto its cylindrical roller.

A still further object of our invention is to provide a fountain paintroller that is under the control of the operator at all times relativeto the amount of paint to be applied over a given surface.

Still further objects of our invention are to provide a fountain paintapplying tool of the roll type that is economical in manufacture,durable in use, and refined in appearance.

These and other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

Our invention consists in the construction, arrangements, andcombination, of the various parts of the device, whereby the objectscontemplated are attained as atent ice hereinafter more fully set forth,specifically pointed out in our claims, and illustrated in theaccompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of our device ready for use;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged front end view of our fountain paint applicator;and

FIG. 3 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of our device taken on line3--3 of FIG. 2 and more fully illustrates its construction.

In these drawings we have used the numeral 10 to designate an ordinarypaint roller applicator cylinder rotatably mounted on the shaft 11 andhaving a wool or like sleeve 12 detachably embracing its periphery. Thenumeral 13 designates a hollow handle portion secured to the forward endof which are the bracket arms 15 and 16. These two arm members 15 and 16provide a forwardly extending U-braoket frame for rotatably holding andsupporting the shaft 11 with the cylinder 10 between its two ends asshown in FIG. 2. Thus far the description of our device is substantiallythat of the ordinary cylindrical paint applicators now on the market. Itis to such equipment that we apply our invention and which we will nowdescribe in detail. We have used the numeral 17 to designate a platehaving the two downwardly extending flanges 19 and 20 at its two ends,respectively, and as shown in FIG. 1. The rear lower ends of the flanges19 and 20 are pivotally secured to the arm members 15 and 16,respectively, and rearwardly of the cylinder 10 by any suitable meanssuch as screws or like 21. The numeral 22 designates a hollow cylinderhaving its two ends closed and rotatably mounted on and between theforward lower end portions of the flanges 19 and 2%, respectively, asshown in FIG. 2. The plate 17 extends forwardly and upwardly and thecylinder 22 is positioned adjacent and directly above the paintapplicator cylinder as shown in FIG. 3. At the forward end area of eachof the flanges 19 and 20 is a downwardly extending coil spring 23secured at its lower end to one of the arms of the U-bracket. Thepurpose of these springs is to yieldingly hold the forward end of theplate member 17 downwardly toward the paint cylinder applicator in orderthat the paint supply roller 22 will be maintained in lowered yieldingengagement with the top of the paint applicator roll. This yieldableholding of the supply roller 22 in com tact with the absorbent sleeve 12of the cylinder 10 is most important, not only for supplying paint tothe sleeve when needed, but also to squeeze paint already on the sleeve12 evenly and uniformly across and throughout the area of the sleeve 12;The numeral 25 designates a row of spaced apart holes through the wallof the cylinder 22. This row of paint passageways always extendsspirally around the cylinder 22 as shown in FIG. 2. The numeral 26designates a hollow fitting on the flange 19 and communicating with theinside of the cylinder 22 through the hole openings 27 in one of thesealed ends of the roll 22 as shown in FIG. 3. The numeral 29 designatesany suitable paint supply container such as a tank, and also containingan air pressure greater than that of atmospheric pressure. The numeral3i! designates a flexible conduit having one end operativelycommunicating with the inside bottom area of the tank or like 29 and itsother end communicating with the inside rear end of the handle 13 asshown in FIG. 1. The numeral 31 designates a flexible hose having oneend communicating with the inside forward end of the handle 13 and itsother end communicating with the inside of the fixture 26. The numeral32 designates a manual depressible valve imposed in the handle 13 asshown in FIG. 3.

The practical operation of the device is as follows: With the paintproduct under compression in the tank 29 it is merely necessary todepress the valve 32 in order to permit the paint product to flow fromthe supply con tainer 29, thence through the flexible conduit 30, thencethrough the handle 13, thence through the flexible pipe 3 1, thencethrough the fixture 26, and'thence into the inside of the cylinder 22.From the inside of the cylinder 22 v the paint will slowly pass throughthe small holes 25 onto and into the absorbent sleeve 12. During thisoperation, the device should be moved forth and back over the Surface tobe painted with the paint applicator roll in engagement with the surfaceas shown in FIG. 1. With the paint applicator roll revolving it willalso by engagement therewith rotate the supply cylinder 22. By the holes25 being spirally arranged the paint will be more evenly and uniformlydistributed across the top of the absorbent sleeve as it rolls acrossthe surface receiving the paint product. As soon as the sleeve has beensuitably saturated with the paint product, the spring loaded valve 32should be released thereby preventing further passage of the paint ontothe absorbent sleeve. As the absorbent sleeve gives up its paint productto the surface being painted and commences to become depleted of paint,the valve 32 should again be temporarily depressed to permit additionalpaint to flow into the supply and distribution cylinder 22. We recommendthat the flexible hose pipe 31 be of transparent material so that theuser of the device can observe any paint flowing from the inside of thehandle 13 into the cylinder 22. The plate 17, besides connecting theflanges 19 and 20, acts as a shield between the user and the twocylinder portions as shown in FIG. 1.

Some changes may be made in the construction and arrangement of ourpaint applying means without departing from the real spirit and purposeof our invention, and it is our intention to cover by our claims, anymodified forms of structure or use of mechanical equivalents which maybe reasonably included within their scope.

We claim:

1. In a painting means, a hollow handle member, a roller supportingbracket secured to said handle, a paint applicator cylinder rotatablymounted in said bracket, a second bracket member hingedly secured tosaid first bracket, a paint distribution cylinder rotatably mounted onsaid second bracket and in engagement with said applicator cylinder,paint exit passageways extending through the wall of said paintdistribution cylinder, means for yieldingly holding said paintdistribution cylinder into contact with said paint applicator cylinder,a flexible pipe having one end communicating with the inside forward endof said handle and its other end communicating with the inside of saidpaint distribution cylinder, a flexible conduit adapted to have one endin communication with a source of paint supply and its other endcommunicating with the inside rear end of said handle, and a manuallyactuated valve imposed in said hollow handle.

2. In a painting means, a hollow handle member, a roller supportingbracket secured to said handle, a paint applicator cylinder rotatablymounted in said bracket, a second bracket member hingedly secured tosaid first bracket, a paint distribution cylinder rotatably mounted onsaid second bracket and in engagement with said applicator cylinder,paint exit passageways extending through the wall of said paintdistribution cylinder, means for yieldingly holding said paintdistribution cylinder into con act wi h. a d paint apn catqr cyl nder,at flexible p ns having one end communicating with the inside forwardend of said handle and its other end communicating with the inside ofsaid paint distribution cylinder, a flexible conduit adapted to have oneend in communication with a source of paint supply and its other endcommunicating with the inside rear end of said'handle, and a manuallyactuated valve imposed in said hollow handle, said second bracket memberbeing in the form of an inverted U- shaped plate.

3. In a painting means, a hollow handle member, a roller supportingbracket secured to said handle, a paint applicator cylinder rotatablymounted in said bracket, a

' second bracket member hingedly secured to said first bracket, a paintdistribution cylinder rotatably mounted on said second bracket and inengagement with said applicator cylinder, paint exit passagewaysextending through the wall of said paint distribution cylinder, meansfor yieldingly holding said paint distribution cylinder into contactwith said paint applicator cylinder, a flexible pipe having one endcommunicating with the inside forward end of said handle and its otherend communicating with the inside of said paint distribution cylinder, aflexible conduit adapted to have one end in communication with a sourceof paint supply and its other end communicating with the inside rear endof said handle, and a'manually actuated valve imposed in said hollowhandle, said second bracket member being in the form of an invertedU;-shaped plate extending forwardly and upwardly rela= tive to. saidhandle.

4. In a painting means, a hollow handle member, a

V rollersupporting bracket secured to said handle, a paint applicatorcylinder rotatably mounted in said bracket, a second bracket memberhingedly secured to said first bracket, a paint distribution cylinderrotatably mounted on said second bracket and in engagement with saidapplicator cylinder, paint exit passageways extending through the wallof said paint distribution cylinder and arranged in a spiral path aroundsaid paint distribution cylinder, means for yieldingly holding saidpaint distribution cylinder into contact with said paint applicatorcylinder, a flexible pipe having one end communicating with the insideforward end of said handle and its other end communicating with theinside of said paint distribution cylinder, a flexible conduit adaptedto have one end in communication with a source of paint supply and itsother end communicating with the inside rear end of said handle, and amanually actuated valve imposed in said hollow handle, said secondbracket member being in the form of an inverted U-shaped plate.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 86 3 8Bin --V-,-V-,---.--- y 16, 19 7 r 1,173,523 Kuehn Feb. 29, 19162,743,469 Ditch May 1, 1956 FOREIGN PATENTS 160, 26 Aus al a -r-.- De1954 817,512 France Sept. 4, 1937 8 ,14 "Germany 1- a? M y 1 G m.--,T'-'-. ---'1---:-

